The defence lawyer in the Scott Guy murder trial says the way the farmer was killed was too obvious to be done by his brother-in-law.
Ewen Macdonald is charged with murdering Guy on July 8, 2010. The Crown says he killed Guy by shooting him in the throat with the farm's shotgun over tensions about the future of the family farm in Feilding.
Defence lawyer Greg King said in his closing statement today it did "not make sense" for Macdonald to kill Guy the way he was murdered.
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"If this was Ewen Macdonald, obviously he didn't want to be caught," King told the High Court in Wellington.
"You could take [Guy] out on one of the occasions when you have to routinely put down a cow. Go out with him, and 'oh gee, I slipped, pulled the trigger, terrible accident'," King said.
"Why would you inflict an unsolved murder on your wife, on your four children, on your two nephews, on your in laws?"
The lawyer said there was four evidence-based reasons why the Crown case was "severely and fatally undermined".
King said if the neighbours' timing about seeing 5am on their clocks was true when they heard a noise, then Macdonald could not have done it, as he turned the workshop alarm off at his home at 5.03am.
His second reason was that the three bangs in close succession heard by witnesses could not have come from the farm shotgun, because it needed to be manually reloaded. In court this took an American expert seven seconds.
The lawyer also noted unidentified tyre marks at the scene from a mystery sedan was something for the jury to think about, as well as the police's suspect list.
Crown's closing
Earlier today, Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk told the jury in his closing statement Macdonald was the arsonist, the vandal, the writer on the wall and then the murderer.
Vanderkolk said the murder was intensely personal and was not a "random" killing. He said it was carried out by a hunter with a deadly prowess in the dark.
The prosecutor disregarded evidence the size of the boots could not be scientifically certain, telling the jury the plaster casts were difficult to be accurate with.
Vanderkolk also said Macdonald's hatred for Guy was evident by the malicious notes left in the Guy's mailbox and obscene graffiti on their home.
"What's in his mind, is just wicked," the prosecutor said.
Vanderkolk said despite efforts made in 2008 to resolve issues like housing and shareholding, Macdonald was still not happy that everything was in place to accommodate Scott and Kylee Guy on the farm.
Macdonald denied the vandalism and arson until confronted with what former farmhand Callum Boe told the police. Boe admitted the offending with Macdonald.
The prosecutor also told the jury Macdonald told people at the crime scene Guy had been shot, when everyone thought his throat had been cut.
"The accused knew the cause of death before anyone else because he was the gunman."
King said the Crown's case was in tatters. The defence will give the second half of his closing statement tomorrow.